Digital images generated by a computer are generally displayed on a display device. Each digital image is generally displayed by controlling an output of a relatively large number of pixels on the display device. Generally, the computer transmits red, green, and blue color intensity values associated with a pixel to an image processing device. Thereafter, the image processing device selects one pixel control value for the pixel from a table wherein the pixel control value is used to control operation of the pixel.
There are significant drawbacks, however, with the foregoing methodology. In particular, the computer transmits an index value for each pixel to the image processing device. Thus, when generating a digital image represented by thousands of pixels, the computer is required to transmit thousands of index values through a communication bus to the image processing device. As a result, the desired bandwidth for transmitting the index values may exceed the bandwidth of the communication bus between the computer and the image processing device. When this occurs, a presentation of a plurality of digital images by the display device may become undesirably “choppy” or discontinuous.
Accordingly, there is a need for a system and a method for generating dithering patterns for a plurality of pixels that utilizes a single index value for controlling operation of the plurality of pixels.